


strange perfections

by dickpuncher420



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 17:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18877690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dickpuncher420/pseuds/dickpuncher420
Summary: Sokka knows what happens next—he knows the signs, and he knows himself, and he knows that he is going to fall fast and he is going to fallhardfor this grumpy, awkward prince of the Fire Nation.—Sokka reflects on his feelings for Zuko.





	strange perfections

**Author's Note:**

> “ _I fall in love just a little, oh a little bit every day with someone new”_
> 
> _\- Someone New_ , Hozier
> 
>  

Over the past year or so since he discovered Aang frozen in an iceberg, Sokka has learned several important things about himself.

First, that he is a fierce and capable warrior in his own right, and that just because he can’t bend doesn’t mean that he can’t hold his own in a fight.

Second, that he is an integral part of their group, and that the others need him just as much as he needs them.

Third, that he has a weakness for pretty girls _and_ pretty boys.

And finally, that he falls fast. And hard.

First it was Suki: she was confident and she was fierce and she wasn’t afraid to stand her ground, and when Sokka pushed her she pushed back even harder. And so Sokka fell fast and hard (literally—he’s pretty sure he has a permanent bruise on his tailbone from when she knocked him down again, and again, and again), and when she kissed him on the cheek as her village blazed around them, his skin where her lips touched him burned hot enough to rival the flames.

Then there was Yue: beautiful, ethereal, untouchable Yue. She was the moon, and Sokka was drawn to her like the tides. He fell fast and hard for her, too, his heart swelling in his chest whenever she laughed or flashed him that small, earnest smile—the one reserved just for him, so different from the way she smiled as Princess of the Northern Water Tribe. And when she left him it felt like someone had torn a hole in his chest, and it still aches every time he stares up at the night sky.

At this point Sokka has become familiar with the signs, with the feeling of falling. There’s a certain weightlessness to it, a lurch and a rush, like missing a step going down the stairs. The world tilts and then realigns, and at the end of it all it’s spinning on a whole new axis—and there’s poor Sokka, disoriented and a little bit off balance, because for all that he’s become familiar with the feeling, it doesn’t become any less jarring, no matter how many times it happens.

A handsome boy with long hair and broad shoulders locks eyes with him in the market, and Sokka’s heart hiccups violently in his chest. A pretty girl with dainty fingers and bright red lips bumps into him in a crowded street and blushes adorably as she apologizes, and Sokka stutters and bumbles his way through an apology of his own.

Prince Zuko laughs at one of Sokka’s jokes, his eyes bright with delighted surprise, and Sokka flushes hot from his head to his toes.

What follows after that is a rush of—not quite dread, exactly, but something like resignation. Or realization. Because Sokka knows what happens next—he knows the signs, and he knows himself, and he knows that he is going to fall fast and he is going to fall _hard_ for this grumpy, awkward prince of the Fire Nation.

And it’s not that Sokka doesn’t like Zuko—really, it’s exactly the opposite—but he can’t help being a little exasperated with himself for falling for Zuko of all people. Because sure he’s handsome and he’s charming in that clumsy way of his, but _Zuko? Really?_ The guy who _chased them around the world for months and made their lives a living nightmare?_ The same guy who tried to _kill them on multiple occasions?_

But, a little niggling voice in the back of his head says, he’s changed! He’s on your side now, and he’s actually a pretty nice guy once you get to know him.

And, well, Sokka might not always have the greatest instincts, but he thinks he has pretty good judgement of people, and he wouldn’t be feeling this way about Zuko if he were still a bad guy, right?

(Or at least that’s what he tells himself to feel better.)

Still, Sokka tries to resist it as best he can, tries to remind himself, _Hello, ex-crazy firebender guy!_ and does everything he can to try to slow or at least cushion the fall—but Zuko makes it so _hard_ sometimes.

Like when he frowns in concentration, his mouth twisting into a pout when he can’t quite figure out a complicated firebending move. Or when he takes off his shirt in the middle of a particularly strenuous firebending lesson with Aang. Or when he and Sokka spar together, and Zuko flashes him that savage, cocky smirk right before he wipes the floor with Sokka’s thoroughly distracted ass.

It’s all making Sokka’s life very difficult, to say the least.

To make things worse, the others have started to notice too, given that Sokka is not very subtle with his, er, _fixation_. He’s been on the receiving end of more than one snide remark from Toph whenever she notices the way his heartrate rockets around Zuko, and Katara has taken to splashing him with water to snap him out of his “mooning,” as she likes to call it. Even Suki, the traitorous bastard, has started teasing him about it.

“You’re cute when you have a crush on someone,” she says, her chin cupped in her palms as she watches Sokka stoke the campfire. “You get really flustered.”

“Shut _up!”_ he yelps, glancing furtively around. Zuko is supposed to be off training with Aang, but one can never be too careful about these things. He turns back to Suki, his voice a whine, “And come on, not you too. Aren’t you supposed to be on my side? Since we, you know, dated and everything?”

“Dat _ed_ , past tense,” Suki says with a smirk. “I’m free to nag you all I want now, loverboy.”

Sokka huffs and turns his attention back towards the fire as Suki laughs.

Thankfully, Zuko is denser than a bag of rocks, so he doesn’t seem to notice anything off. Sokka could probably wave a banner that says “I think I’m in love with you!” in his face and he still wouldn’t notice.

Sokka can’t quite decide if that’s a good thing or not.

On one hand, if Zuko doesn’t know about Sokka’s feelings, then he can’t do anything to break Sokka’s heart.

On the other hand, Sokka is literally going out of his mind thinking about Zuko and _what if_ s. He doesn’t want to call it pining, but is there really any other word for it when he regularly has dreams about holding Zuko’s hand or kissing his stupid face?

Ultimately, though, Sokka is too much of a coward to do anything about his embarrassingly large crush on Zuko—and so he watches from afar, cataloguing all of Zuko’s strange perfections that make him so wonderfully endearing.

His small, genuine smile that only comes out when he thinks people aren’t looking. His laugh, a little rusty and a little unsteady, like an old pipa that hasn’t been tuned in years. The way he’ll brush his hair out of his eyes and tuck the strands behind his ears (Sokka’s fingers twitch when he sees him do this, desperately itching to do it for him). Even his scar, which Sokka once saw as the mark of the enemy, is now just a part of him—a part of the boy that Sokka has so deeply fallen for.

It’s not too bad, Sokka thinks. He’s used to the weightlessness and the rush by now, a comforting constant more than anything else. Maybe one day he’ll find the courage to confess, to offer up that kind of vulnerability again, but right now he’s content to just sit back and enjoy the fall.


End file.
